 Chapter 18 of It is Never Too Late to Mend Mr. Hawes went about the prison next day morose and melancholy. He spoke to no one and snapped those who spoke to him. He punished no prisoner all day, but he looked at them as a wolf at fortified sheep. He did not know what to do to avert the blow he had drawn so perseveringly on his own head. At one time he thought of writing to the home office and espersing his accuser. Then he regretted his visit to Ashton Park. What an unlucky dog I am. I go to see a man that I was sure of before I went, and while I am gone, the person steals a march on me. He will beat me. If I hadn't been a fool, I should have seen what a dangerous devil he is. No putting him out of temper and no putting him out of heart. He will beat me. The zealous services of so many years won't save me with an ungrateful government. I shall lose my stipend. For a while even stout-hearted earnest Mr. Hawes was depressed with gloom and bitter foreboding, but he had a resource in trouble good Mr. Eden in similar case had not. In the despondency of his soul he turned to grog. Under the inspiration of that deity he prepared for a dogged defense. He would punish no more prisoners, let them do what they might, and then if an inquiry should take place he would be in case to show that by his past severities he had at last brought his patients to such perfection that weeks had elapsed without a single punishment. With this and the justice's good word he would weather the storm yet. Thus passed three days without one of those assaults on prisoners he called punishment, but this enforced forbearance made him hate his victims. He swore at them, he threatened them all round, and with deep malice he gave open orders to punish which he secretly countermanded, so that in fact he did punish, for blows suspended over the head fall upon the soul. Thus he made his prisoners share his gloom. He was unhappy, he was dull, robbed of an excitement which had become butter to his daily bread. All prison life is dull, chaplain, turnkeys, jailers, all who live in prisons are prisoners, barren of mental resources, too stupid to see far less read the vast romance that lay all round him, every cell a volume, too mindless to comprehend his own grand situation on a salient of the state and of human nature, and to discern the sacred and endless pleasures to be gathered there. This unhappy dull, flung into a lofty situation by shallow blockheads, who like himself saw in a jail nothing greater nor more than a place of punishment, must still like his prisoners, and the rest of us have some excitement to keep him from going dead. What more natural than that such a nature should find its excitement in tormenting, and that by degrees this excitement should become first a habit, then a need. Growth is the nature of habit, not of one sort or another, but a ball, even of an unnatural habit. Gin grows on a man, charity grows on a man, tobacco grows on a man, blood grows on a man. At a period of the reign of terror, the Parisians got to find a day weary without the guillotine. If, by some immense fortuity, there came a day when they were not sprinkled with innocent blood, the poor souls annihilate. This was not so much thirst for any particular liquid as the habit of excitement. Some months before, dancing, theaters, boulevard, etc., would have made shift to amuse these same hearts, as they did some months after when the red habit was worn out. Torture had grown upon stupid, earnest haws. It seasoned that white of egg a mindless existence. Oh, how dull he felt these three deplorable days. Baron of groans and white faces and livid lips and fellow creatures shamming and the bucket. Shamming a generic term for swooning or sickening or going mad in prison. Mr. Haas had given a sulky order that the infirmary should be prepared for the sick, and now on the afternoon of the third day, the surgeon had met him there by appointment. Will they get well any quicker here? asked Haas ironically. Why, certainly, replied the other. Haas gave a dissatisfied grunt. I hate moving prisoners out of the cells, but I suppose I shall get you into trouble if I don't. Indeed, said the other, with an inquiring air. How? Parsons threatens you very hard for letting the sick ones lie in their cells, said Haas slyly. But never mind, old boy, I shall stand your friend in the justice's mind. We shall beat him yet, said Haas, assuming a firmness he did not feel, lest this man should fall away from him and perhaps bear witness against him. I think you have him beat already, replied the other calmly. What do you mean? I have just come for Mr. Eden. He sent for me. What, isn't he well? I wish he'd die, but there is no chance of that. Well, there's always a chance of a man dying who's got a billy's fever. While you don't mean he is seriously ill, cried Haas in excitement. I don't say that, but he has got a sharp attack. Mr. Haas examined the speaker's face. It was as legible as a book from the outside. He went from the subject to one or two in different matters, but he could not keep long from what was uppermost. Sawyer said he, you and I have always been good friends. Yes, Mr. Haas. I've never been hard upon you. You ought to be here every day, but the pay is small and I've never insisted on it because I said he can't afford to leave the patients that pay. No, Mr. Haas, and I'm much obliged to you. Are you? And tell me, between ourselves now, how ill is he? He has got billy's fever consequent upon jaundice. Haas lowered his voice. Is he in danger? In danger? Why no, not at present. Oh, then it is only an indisposition, after all. It is a great deal more than that. It is fever and bile. Can't you tell me in two words how ill he is? Not till I see how the case turns. When will you be able to say, then, when the disorder declares itself more fully? Haas exploded in an oath. You humbugs of doctors couldn't speak plain to save yourselves from hanging. There was some truth in this ill-natured excuse. After 15 years given to the science of obscurity, Mr. Sawyer literally could not speak plain all in one moment. The next morning there was no service in the chapel. The chaplain was in bed. This spoke for itself, and Haas wore a look of grim satisfaction at the announcement. But this was not all. In the afternoon came a letter from Mr. Williams with a large enclosure signed by Her Majesty's son, Secretary's Secretary, and written by Her Secretary's Secretary's Secretary. Its precise contents will be related elsewhere. Its tendency may be gathered from this. Haas had no sooner read it than exaltation painted itself on his countenance. Close the infirmary and bring me the key, and you, Frye, put these numbers on the cranks tomorrow. He scribbled with his pencil and gave him a long list of the prescribed. No Mr. Eden's shown to me upon Mr. Robinson's solitude. He waited and waited, and hoped till the day ended, but no, the next day the same thing. He longed for Mr. Eden's hour to come. It came, but not with it came his one bit of sunshine, his excitement, his amusement, his consolation, his friend, his brother, his all. And so one heavy day succeeded another, and Robinson became fretful and very, very sad. One day, as he said, disconsolate and foreboding in his cell, he heard a stranger's voice talking to Frye outside. And what was more strange, Frye appeared to be inviting this person to inspect the cells. The next moment his door was opened and a figure peeped timidly into the cell from behind Frye, whose arms she clutched in some anxiety. Robinson looked up, it was Susan Merton. She did not instantly know him in his prison dress and his curly hair cut short. He hung his head in this action and the recognition it implied made her recognize him. Oh! cried she. It is Mr. Robinson. The thief turned his face to the wall. Even he was ashamed before one who had known him as Mr. Robinson. But the next moment he got up and said earnestly, Pray, Ms. Merton, do me a favor. You had always a kind heart. Ask that man what has become of Mr. Eden. He will answer you. Mr. Eden tells. He is very ill, Mr. Robinson. Ah! I feared as much. He never would have deserted me else. What is the trouble? You may well say trouble. It is the prison that has fretted him to death, cried Susan, half bitterly, half sorrowfully. But he will get well. It is not serious, inquired Robinson anxiously. Frye pricked his ears. He is very ill, Mr. Robinson and Susan sighed heavily. The fellow will pray for him that know how. Ms. Merton, good for nothing as I am, I would die for Mr. Eden this minute if I could save his life by it. Susan thought of this speech afterward. Now she but said, I will tell him what you say. And won't you bring me one word back from his dear mouth? Yes, I will. Goodbye, Mr. Robinson. Robinson tried to say goodbye, but it stuck in his throat. Susan retired from the prison with fever. He had been what most of us would have called ill long before this. The day of Carter's crucifixion was a fatal day to him. On that day for the first time he saw crucifixion without being sick after it. The poor soul congratulated himself so on this, but there is reason to think that same sickness acted as a safety valve to his nature. When it ceased, the bile overflowed and mixed with his blood, and when he was wrong had ceased, he might perhaps have had no dangerous attack. But everything was against him, constant grief, constant worry, and constant pre-natural exertions to sustain others while drooping himself. Even those violent efforts of will by which he thrust back for a time the approaches of his malady told heavily upon him at last. The thoroughbred horse ran much longer than a cocktail would, but he would not run forever. He lay on shaven, Mrs. Davies and Susan watched him by turns, except when he compelled them to go and take a little rest or amusement. The poor thing's thoughts were never on himself even when he was lightheaded, and this was often, though not for long together. It was generally his poor prisoners and what he was going to do for them. This is how Susan Merton came to visit Robinson. One day, seeing his great interest in all the concerns of the prison and remembering there was a book to do something, however small, to please him, determined to take this book to its destination. Leaving Mrs. Davies with a strict injunction not to stir from Mr. Eden's room till she came back, she went to the prison and knocked timidly at the great door. It was opened instantly and as Susan fancied fiercely by a burly figure. Susan, suppressing an inclination to run away, asked tremulously, does Mr. Fry live here? Yes. Susan stepped in. The man slammed the door. Susan wished herself on its other side. My name is Fry. What is your pleasure with me? Mr. Fry, I'm so glad I found you. I am come here from a friend of yours. From a friend of mine, said Fry with a mystified air. Yes, from Mr. Eden. Here is the book, Mr. Fry. Poor Mr. Eden could not bring it to you himself, but you see he has written your name on the cover with his own hand. When he was doing so, observed that she was lovely. So to make her a return for bringing him Uncle Tom and for being so pretty, Fry for once in his life felt generous and repaid her by volunteering to show her the prison. Indulgent Fry. To his surprise, Susan did not jump at this remuneration. On the contrary, she said hastily, oh no, no, no. Then, seen by his face, that her new acquaintance was a very little. But if I do, you must keep close by me, Mr. Fry. Why, of course, I shall keep with you, replied Fry somewhat contemptuously. No strangers admitted accepting company of an officer. Susan still hung fire. But you mustn't go to show me the very wicked ones. Why, they are all pretty much of a muchness for that. I mean the murderers. I couldn't bear such a sight. Got none, said Fry sorrowfully, four months ago. Up at eight, down at nine, you understand, Miss? Happily Susan did not understand this brutal illusion and not to show her ignorance, she said nothing, but passed to a second stipulation. And Mr. Fry, I know the men that set fire to former Dean's ricks are in this jail. I won't see them. They would give me such a turn for that seems to be the next one. Then he said sarcastically, don't you be frightened, some of our lot are beauties, your friend the parson is a fond of some of them as a cow is of her calf. Oh, then show me those ones. Fry took her to one or two cells. Whenever he opened a cell door, she always clutched him on both ribs and this tickled Fry. So did her simplicity. At last he came to Robinson's cell. In here there is a sulky chap. Oh, then let us go on to the next. And his reverence is uncommon fond of said Fry with a sneer and a chuckle. So he flung open the door and if the man had not hung his head Susan would hardly have recognized in his uniform corduroy and close cropped hair the vulgar Adonis who had set glittering opposite her at table the last time they met. After the interview, which I've described, Susan gratified Fry by praising the beautiful cleanliness of the woman's rough hide and Uncle Tom behind her. When she got home, she found her patient calm but languid. While she was relating her encounter with Robinson and her previous acquaintance with him, the knock of a born fool at a sick man's door made them all start. It was Rutila and with a long letter bearing an ample seal. Mr. Eden took it with brightening eye, read it and ground it almost convulsively in his hand. Asses cried he, and found him bowed his head. Her Majesty's Secretary's Secretary's Secretary had written to tell him that his appeal for an inquiry had traveled out of the regular course. It ought to have been made in the first instance to the visiting justices whose business it was to conduct such inquiries and that it lay with these visiting justices to apply to the home office for an extraordinary inquiry if they found they could not deal with the facts in the usual way. The office, therefore, had the visiting justices who at their next inspection of the jail would examine into the alleged facts and had been requested to insert the results in their periodical report. Mr. Eden sat up in bed, his eyes glittering, bring me my writing desk. It was put on the bed before him, but with many kind injunctions not to worry himself. He promised faithfully. He wrote to the home office in this style. Nor can a higher jurisdiction transfer an appeal to a lower one without the appellant's consent. Such a course is still more out of order when the higher judge is a salaried servant of the state and the lower ones are amateurs. This is so self-evident that I did not step out of the direct line to cast reflections upon unpaid servants. You have not seen what is self-evident. You drive me, therefore, to explanations. I offered you evidence that you have been hoodwinked to visiting justices and has deceived you. But between you and the justices is this essential difference. They have been hoodwinked in spite of their own eyes, their own ears, and contact with that mass of living and dying evidence, the prisoners. You have been deceived without a single opportunity of learning the truth. Therefore I appealed to the jailer if I put it thus. I still accuse the jailer of more than a hundred felonious assaults upon prisoners, of attacks upon their lives by physical torture, by hunger, thirst, preposterous confinement in dark dungeons, and other illegal practices. And I now advance another step and accuse the visiting justices of gross dereliction of their duty, of neglecting to ascertain the real practice of the jailer in some points, of the rules printed and issued by active parliament. Of these rules, which are the jail code, I send you a copy. I note the practices of the jail by the side of the rules of the jail. By comparing the two, you may calculate the amount of lawless cruelty perpetrated here in each single day. Then ask yourself whether an honest man who is on the spot can wait four or five months till justice, crippled by routine, and safe, bring to bear upon a matter vital to the state one half the intelligence, zeal, and sense of responsibility you will throw this evening into some ambiguous question of fleeting policy of speculative finance. Here are 180 souls to whose correction, cure, and protection the state is pledged. No one of all these lives is safe a single day. In six weeks I have saved two lives that were gone but for me. I am now sick and enfeebled that I have had to make to save lives and am in no condition to arrest the progress of destruction. I tell you that more lives will fall if you do not come to my aid at once and for every head that falls from this hour I hold you responsible to God and the state. If I fail to prove my several accusations as a matter of course I shall be dismissed for my office deservedly and this personal risk entitles me not only to petition for but to demand an inquiry into the practice of jail who salaried servant I am I do demand it on the instant and on the spot. Thus did flesh and blood address gut departure. The excitement of writing this letter did the patient no good. A reaction came and that night his kind nurses were seriously alarmed about him. They sent for the surgeon who felt his pulse and his skin and looked grave. However he told them there was no immediate danger to all the doctor's medicines which were raking ones. Only at each visit and prescription he cross examined him as to what effect he hoped to produce by his prescription and compared the man's expectations with the result. This process soon brought him to the suspicion and in his case a scoplius's science was guesswork. But we go on hoping and hoping something from traditional remedies even when they fail and fail and fail before our eyes. Often lightheaded invented schemes of charity and benevolence ludicrous by their unearthly grandeur. One day he was more than lightheaded he was delirious and frightened his kind nurses and to this delirium succeeded great feebleness and this day for the first time Susan made up her mind that it was heaven's will earth should lose this man of whom in truth earth was scarce worthy. She came to a side and said tenderly let me do something for you shall I read to you or sing you a song of praise had often soothed and done him good tell me what I can do for you. The man smiled gratefully then looked imploringly in her eyes and said dear Susan go for me into the prison and pay strut and Robinson each a visit. Strut the longest he is the oldest for things they miss me sadly. Susan made no foolish objection she did what she was asked and came back and told him all they had said and all she had said and now they had all asked how he was today. They are very good he said feebly soon after he does and Susan who always were a cheerful look to his face could now yield to her real feelings. She sat at some little distance from the bed and tried to work and every now and then looked up to watch him and again and again her eyes were blinded and she laid down her work for her heart said to her a few short days and you will see him no more. He said she had made the house neat and clean from cellar to garret and now he who should have enjoyed it lay their sick unto death. Susan said she I doubt I have been sent here to set his house in order against his oh don't tell me that cried Susan and she burst into a fit of sobbing for Mrs. Davies had harped her own fear. Take care he is waking Susan he must not see us. Oh no in the next moment she has a cheerful look and a voice and manner well calculated to keep any male heart from sinking sick or well. Heavy heart and hopeful face such a nurse with Susan Merton this kind deception became more difficult every day. Her patient wasted and wasted in the anxious look that is often seen on a death stricken man's face showed itself. Mrs. Davies saw it and Susan saw it but the sick man himself as yet had never spoken of his own to see his real state. But one day it so happened that he was lightheaded and greatly excited holding a conversation his eye was flashing and he spoke in bursts and then stopped awhile and seemed to be listening in irritation to some arguments with which he did not agree. The enthusiast was building a prison in the air a prison with a farm a school and a manufacturing attached here were to be combined the good points of an imaginary companion there shall be both separation and silence for those whose moral case it suits for all perhaps at first but not for all always away with your Morrison's pill system your childish monotony of moral treatment in cases varying and sometimes opposed. Yes but I would I would allow a degree of intercourse between such as were disposed to confirm each other and good watch them why of course and closely to intelligent tickets of leave to let the hypocritical or self deceiving ones loose upon the world. No I test their repentance first with a little Liberty how why fly them with a string before I let them fly free occupation provided outside the prison gates instead of ticket of leave let the candidate work there on parole and come into the prison at night. Some will break parole and run away all the better then you know their real character every town catch them sell them. Indeed and pray what would these same men have done had you given them the ticket of leave instead by the present plan your pseudo convert commits a dozen crimes before his hypocrisy is suspected by ours a single offense warns you and arms you against him systems avail less than is supposed for good or ill all depends on your men not your machinery we've got rid of the old patch was chaplain of a jail his mind had gone forward some years then we were mad thought a new system could be worked by men of the past by jailers and turn keys belonging to the dark and brutal age that came before ours those dark days are past now we have really a governor and warders instead of jailers and turn keys the nation has discovered these are high offices not mean ones yes level yes our officers they cooperate with me our jail is one of the nation's eyes it is a school thank heaven it is not a dungeon I am in bed with these last words he had come to himself and oh the sad contrast but surely block heads in these high places and himself lying sick and powerless unable to lift a hand for the cause he loved the sigh that burst from him seemed to tear his very heart but the very next moment he put his hands humbly in his lion eye and spite of all trickled down his cheek while he said God's will be done Susan saw it and turned quickly away and hit her face but he called her and though his lip quivered his voice was pretty firm dear friend God can always find instruments the good work will be done they're not by me so then Susan judged by these few words and the tear that trickled from his closed eyes that he saw what others saw and did she could no longer restrain or conceal the patiently quiet languidly dosing now about four o'clock in the afternoon the surgeon came to the door but what surprised Susan was that a man accompanied him whom she only just knew by sight and who had never been there before the turnkey Hodges the pair spoke together in a low tone and Susan who was looking down from an upper window could not hear what they said but the discussion was very clear and she was very self-admitted but as she was leading the way upstairs her aunt suddenly bounced out of the polo looking unaccountably red and said I will go up with them Susan Susan said if you like aunt but felt some little surprise at mrs. Davies brisk manner at the sick man's door mrs. Davies paused and said dryly with a look at Hodges who shall I say has come with you whether he will receive a stranger at mid him was mr. Eden's answer the men entered the room and were welcomed with a kind but feeble smile from the sick man sit down Hodges the surgeon felt his pulse and wrote a prescription for it is a tradition of the elders that at each visit the doctor must do some overt act of medicine after this he asked the patient how he felt and he nodded and said I may not have any more opportunities of giving you a word of friendly excitation here a short dissatisfied contemptuous grunt was heard at the window seat did you speak mrs. Davies no I didn't was a somewhat sharp reply we should improve every occasion mrs. Davies and I want this poor man to know that a dying man may miss his race when he called himself a dying man Hodges who was looking uncomfortable and at the floor raised his head and the surgeon and he interchanged a rapid look it was observed though not by mr. Eden that gentleman seeing Hodges wearing a bashed look which he misunderstood and aiming to improve him for the future not punish him for the past said but first let me thank you for coming his gentle intention was roughly interpreted mrs. Davies flung down her work and came like a flaming turkey cock across the floor in a moment and seized his arm and flung it back into the bed no you don't you shan't give your hand to any such rubbish mrs. Davies yes mrs. Davies you don't know what they've come here for I overheard you at the door you have got an enemy in your colloquium together backward and forward ever so long and I heard him it is not out of any kindness or goodwill in the world I suppose you march out the way you came in screamed mrs. Davies mrs. Davies be quiet and let me speak of course I will sir said the woman in ludicrously sudden calm and coaxing tone there was a silence mr. Eden eyed the men small guilt peaked from them by its usual little signs so you did not come to see me you were sent by that man mrs. Davies be quiet curiosity is not a crime like torturing the defenseless mr. Hawes sent you that you might tell him as soon as victims are like to lose their only earthly defender the men colored and stammered mrs. Davies covered her face with her apron and rocked herself on her chair mrs. Eden flowed gently on tell your master that I've paid tell him that I've made my will I have provided in it for the turnkey Evans he will know why tell him he found my cheeks fallen away my eye hollow and my face squalid tell him my Bible was by my side and even the prison was mingling with other memories as I drifted from earth and all its thorns and tears always blunted but the Christians faith and trust in his redeemer my forehead tell him that you found me by the side of the river Jordan looking across the cold river to the heavenly land where they who have been washed in the blood of the lamb walk in white garments and seen even as I gaze to welcome and beckon me to join them and then tell him cried he in a new voice like a flash of lightning that he has brought me back to earth you have come and reminded me that if I die a wolf is as the Lord liveth and as my soul liveth I will not die but live and do the Lord's work and put my foot yet on that cadets neck who sent you to inspect my decaying body you poor tools the door he was up in the bed by magic towering above them all and he pointed to the door with a tremendous gesture and an eye that flamed Mrs. Davies caught the electric spark and in a moment Susan, Susan Susan heard his elevated voice and came running in in great anxiety they say there is no such thing as friendship between a man and a woman proved to me this is a falsehood it is sir do me a service I what is it go a journey for me I will go all around England for you Mr. Edens my writing desk it is to a village 60 miles from this but you will be there in four hours in that village lives the man what will you take with you as Mrs. Davies all in a bustle a comb and brush and a chemise I'll have them down in a twinkling the note was written take this to his house see him tell him the truth and bring him with you tomorrow it will be 50 pounds out of his pocket to lead his patience but I think he will come oh yes he will come for old Langzine goodbye Mr. Eden God bless you aunt I want to be gone oh good Mrs. Davies give me the Bible often has that book soothed the torn nerves as well as the bleeding heart and let no one come here to grieve or vex me for 24 hours and fling that man's draught away I want to live Mrs. Davies had heard Hodges and Fries all right Mr. Eden by her clue had interpreted the visit all right with this exception that he overrated his own importance in Mr. Hawes eyes and made the rules the virtual referees still a shade of uneasiness remained during the progress of this long duel Eden had let fall two disagreeable hints one was that he would spend a thousand pounds in setting such prisoners as survived causes discipline to indict him and the other that he would appeal to the public press this last threat had touched our man of brass for if there is one thing upon earth that another thing does not like your moral mal-factor who happens to be out of the laws reach hates and shivers at the new Bailey in printing house yard so upon the whole Mr. Hawes thought that the best thing Mr. Eden could do would be to go to heaven without any more fuss yes that will be the best for all parties he often questioned the doctor in his blunt way how soon the desired event might be expected to come off if at all the doctor still answered per ambages utmost or callous I'll send myself no I won't I'll send fry ah here's Hodges go and see the person and come back and tell me whether he's like to live or like to die Mr. Sawyer here can't speak English about a patient he would do it to oblige me if he could but him he can't don't much like the job to murder Hodges sulkly what matters what you like you must do all things you don't like in a prison or get into trouble the commander being now out of sight his reluctance revived and this led to an amicable discussion in which the surgeon made him observe how very ferocious and impatient of opposition the governor had lately become he can get either of us dismissed if we offend him so the pair of cowards did what they were bid and got themselves trod upon a bit it only remains to be said that as they trudged back together a little venom worked in their little hearts they hated both dualists for treating them like dogs the other for sending them where they had got treated like dogs and they disliked each other for seeing them treated like dogs one bitterness they escaped it did not occur to them to hate themselves for being dogs end of chapter 18 part 1 chapter 18 of it is never too late to mend part 2 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings in the public domain for more information to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Mary Maxwell it is never too late to mend by Charles Reed chapter 18 part 2 if you force a strong-willed stick out of its bent with what fury it flies back add Statham Quo or a little farther when the coercion is removed so hard-grained haws his fears of the higher powers removed returned with a spring of its intermittent habits there was no incarnate obstacle now to discipline there was a provisional chaplain but that chaplain was worthy Mr. Jones who having visited the town for a month had consented for a week or two to supply the sick man's place and did supply it so far as a good clock can replace a man viewing himself now as something between an officer and a guest he was less likely to show fight than ever earnest haws pilloried flung into black dungeons filled with cold beds and gas light crushed souls with mysterious threats and bodies with a horrible mixture of those tortures that madden and those other tortures that exhaust no Spanish inquisitor was ever a greater adept at this double move than earnest haws the means by which he could make any prisoner appear refractory have already been described but in case of one stout fellow whom he wanted to discipline he went now a step farther into the yard and slightly clogged one of the cranks with a weight which he inserted inside the box and attached to the machinery this contrivance would have beaten Hercules and made him seem idle to anyone not in the secret in short this little blockhead bade fair to become one of Mr. Carlisle's great men he combined the earnest sneak with the earnest butcher barbarous times are not wholly expunged as bookmakers effect to fear legislators and writers I don't include bookmakers under that title try to clap their extinguishers on them with God's help but they still contrived to shoot some lurid specimens of themselves into civilized epochs such a black ray of the narrow self deceiving stupid bloody past was earnest pause not a tie that was exploits can be recorded here for though he played upon many souls and bodies he repeated the same notes hunger crucifixion solitude loss of sleep so that a description of all his feats would be a catalog of names subjected to the above tortures and be dry as well as revolting I shall describe therefore only the grand result of all and a case or two that varied by a shade the monotony of discipline he kept one poor lad without any food at all from Saturday morning till Sunday at 12 o'clock and made him bed and a can of water he strapped one prisoner up in the pillory for 24 hours and directed him to be fed in it this prisoner had a short neck and the cruel collar would not let him eat so that the tortures of tantalus were added to crucifixion the earnest beast put a child of 11 years old into a straight waistcoat for three days then kept him three days on bread and water and robbed him of his bed and his gas for 14 days these little punishments so vast beyond our experience but in order to catch a glimmer of the meaning of the last item we must remember first that the cells admit but little light and that the gas is the prisoner's sunlight for the hour or two of rest from hard toil that he is allowed before he is ordered to bed and next that a prisoner has but two sets of clothes those he stands up right in and his bed clothes was robbed of his bed he was robbed of the means of keeping himself warm as well as of that rest without which life soon comes to a full stop having victimized this child's tender body as aforesaid Mr. Haas made a cut at his soul he stopped his chapel one ought not to laugh at a worm coming between another worm and his god and saying no, you shall not hear of god today Mr. Haas has observed that though this blockhead did not in one sense comprehend the nature of his own impious act any more than a hot and top would yet as broad as he saw he saw keenly the one ideated man wanted to punish and deprivation of chapel is a bitter punishment to a prisoner under the separate and silent system and lay this down as a rule whenever in this tale a punishment is recorded as having been afflicted by Haas who never felt it bring your intelligence to bear on it weigh the other conditions of a prisoner's miserable existence it was added to and in every case you will find it was a blow with a sledgehammer in short to comprehend Haas and his fraternity it is necessary to make a mental effort and comprehend the meaning of the word accumulation the first execution of biped Carter took place about a week after Mr. Eden was laid prostrate in the imbecile and the governor and meshed Carter made him out refractory and crucified him the poor soul did not hello at first for he remembered that they had not cut his throat the last time as he thought they were going to do he had seen a pig first made fast then stuck but when the bitter cramps came on he began to howl and cry most frightfully so that Haas who was talking to the surgeon in the center of the building they tried different ways of quieting him in vain they went to a distance as Mr. Eden had suggested but it was no use he was howling now from pain not fear gag him roared Haas it is scandalous I hate a noise better loose him suggested the surgeon Haas blighted him with a look what and let him beat me there is no gag in the prison said Fry it was a reflection he was ever heard to cast on his model jail then with sudden ferocity he turned on Sawyer what is the use of you don't you know anything for your money can't all your science stop this brute's windpipe you science thus blandly invoked came to the aid of inhumanity have you got any salt salt Ford Haas what is the use of salt oh I see run and get a pound now will you hold your noise then give it him the scientific operator watched his opportunity and when the poor biped's mouth was open howling crammed a handful of salt into it he spat it out as well as he could but some of it dissolved by the saliva found its way down his throat the look of amazement and distress that followed was most amusing to the operators that was a good idea doctor the triumph was premature Carter's cries were choked for a moment by his astonishment but the next finding a fresh torture added to the first he howled louder than ever then the governor seized the salt poured a good handful and avoiding his teeth crammed it suddenly into the poor creature's mouth he spat it furiously out and the brine fell like a sea spray upon all the operators especially on Haas the poor biped and called him a beast and promised him a long spell of the cross for his nastiness after Haas Fry must take his turn and so now these three creatures to whom heaven had given reason combined their strength and their sacred reason to torture and degrade one of those whom the French call a heaven afflicted heaven pitied brother they respected neither the hapless white nor his owner to claim their hurts and appeal for pity on the chance of a heart being within hearing then did these show their sense of his appeal thus one of the party crammed the stinging salt down his throat the others watched him and kept clear of the brine that he spat vehemently out and a loud report of laughter followed instantly each wild grimace and convulsion of fear and torture ha ha ha no lightning came down from heaven upon these merry souls the idiot's spittle did not burn them when it fell on them all the worse for them they left Carter for hours in the pillory and soon a violent thirst was added to his sufferings prolonged pain brings on cruel thirst and many a poor fellow suffered horribly from it during the last hours of his pillory but in this case the salt was first it is a frightful torture as any novice would have learned who had seen Carter at 6 in the evening of this cruel day the poor wretched throat was so parched he could hardly breathe his eyes were all bloodshot and his livid tongue lulled stringless and powerless out of his gasping mouth he would have given diamonds for drops of water the earnest man going his rounds of duty saw his pitiable state and forbade relief discipline before all there was one man in the jail just one who could no longer view this barbarity unmoved his heart had been touched and his understanding awakened and he saw these prodigies of cruelty in their true light but he was afraid of haws and unfortunately the others by an instinct felt their comrade was no longer one of them and watched him closely but his intelligence was awakened with his humanity he took the works out of his watch an old hunting watch and stolen into the yard dipped the case into the bucket then closed it and soon after getting close to Carter and between him and Fry he effected to examine the prisoner's collar and then hastily gave him a watch full of cold water Carter sucked it with frightful avidity and small as the drop was no mortal can say what consequence were averted by it Evans was dreadfully out of spirits and his ally lay dying and his enemy triumphed he looked to be turned out of the jail at the next meeting of magistrates but when he had given the idiot his watch to drink out of and unwanted warmth and courage seemed to come into his heart this touch of humanity coming suddenly among the most hellish of all fiends men of system was like the little candle in a window that throws its beams so far when we are bewildered in a murky night in a room that lie under the wing of Roderick Borges' successors are not a more awful remnant of antiquity or a fowler blot on the age on the law, on the land and on human nature a thick dark pall of silence and woe hung over its huge walls if a voice heard above a whisper it was sure to be either a cry of anguish or a fierce command to inflict anguish two or three were crucified every day the rest expected crucifix for morning till night no man felt safe an hour no man had the means of averting punishment all were at the mercy of a tyrant threats frightful fierce and mysterious hung like weights over every soul and body whenever a prisoner met an officer he cowered and hurried crouching by like a dog passing a man with a whip in his hand and as he passed he trembled at the thunder of his own footsteps and wished to heaven with much attention to him by ringing so clear through that huge silent tomb when an officer met the governor he tried to slip by with a hurried salute lest he should be stopped abused and sworn at the earnest man fell hardest upon the young boys and children were favorite victims but his favorites of all were poor Robinson and little Joseph's these were at the head of the long list he crucified he parched, he famished he robbed a prayer and hoped he disciplined the sick he closed the infirmary again that large room furnished with comforts nurses and air was an inconsistency a new prison is a collection of cells said Hawes the infirmary was a spot in the sun the exercise yard in this prison was a 12 box stable for creatures concluded to be wild beasts the labor yard was a 15 stall stable for ditto the house of God and 80 stall stable into which the wild beasts were dispersed for public worship made private here in early days before Hawes was ripe they assembled apart and repeated prayers and sang hymns on Sunday but Hawes found out that though the men were stable apart their voices were refractory and mingled in the air and with their voices their hearts might who knows and stop the men's responses in hymns these animals cut the choruses out of the English liturgy with his little ceremony and as good effect as they would have cut the choruses out of Handel's Messiah if the theory they were working had been a musical instead of a moral one so far so good but the infirmary had escaped justice shallow and justice Woodcock Hawes abolished that discipline before all they could break discipline so the sick lay in their narrow cells gasping in vain for fresh air gasping in vain for some cooling drink or some little simple delicacy to incite their enfeebled appetite the dying were locked up at the fixed hour for locking up and found dead at the fixed hour for opening how they had died no one knew at what hour they had died no one knew whether in some choking struggle they had died by changing a suffocating position or the like no one knew but this all knew that these our sinful brethren had died not like men but like vultures in the great desert they were separated from their kith and kin who however brutal would have said a kind word and done a tender thing or two for them at that awful hour and nothing allowed them in exchange they were in darkness and alone when the king of terrors came to them and wrestled with them all men had turned their backs on them no creature near to wipe the do's of death to put a cool hand to the brow or soften the intensity of the last sad sigh that carried their souls from earth thus they passed away punished lawlessly by the law till they succumbed and then since they were no longer food for torture ignored by the law they locked up one dying man at eight o'clock at midnight the thirst of death came on him he prayed for a drop of water but there was none to hear him parched and gasping the miserable man got out of bed and groped for his tin mug but before he could drink the death agony seized him when they unlocked him in the morning they found him a corpse on the floor with a mug in his hand and the water spilled on the floor they wrenched the prison property and defeated the clay cast of a dog not the remains of a man all was of a peace the living tortured the dying abandoned the dead kicked out of the way of these three the living were the most unfortunate and among the living Robinson and Joseph's never since the days of Cain was existence made more bitter to two hapless creatures and to these above all to Joseph's revolutions of a heavy crank when he could not do it his dinner was taken away and a few crumbs of bread and a can of water given him instead between his bread and water time and 6 o'clock if the famished worn out lad could not do 5,000 more revolutions and make up the previous deficiency he was punished as the whole thing from first to last was beyond his powers he died and tortured every day and every hour of it human beings can bear great sufferings if you give them periods of ease between and beneficent nature allows for this and when she means us to suffer short of death she lashes us at intervals were it otherwise we should succumb under a tie than what we suffer intermittently but haws besides his cruelty was a noodle he belonged to a knot of theorists and his tales are fast falling a set of shallow dreamers who being greater dunces and greater asses than four men out of every six that pass you in Fleet Street or Broadway at any hour think themselves wiser than nature and her author Joseph suffered body and spirit without intermission the result was that his flesh withered on his bones his eyes were dim and seemed to lie at the bottom of two caverns he crawled stiffly and slowly out of age he had haws had extinguished his youth and blotted out all its signs but one had you met this figure in the street you would have said what an old man and no beard one day as Robinson happened to be washing the corridor with his beaver up what he took for a small but aged man passed him shambling stiffly with joints stiffened by perpetual crucifixion and rheumatism that had ensued from perpetually at sight of Robinson he started and instantly went down on his knee and untied both shoestrings then while tying them again slowly he whispered Robinson I am Joseph's don't look toward me Robinson scrubbing the wall with more vigor than before whispered how are they using you now boy hush don't speak so loud Robinson they are killing me the ruffians they are trying all they know to kill me too fry coming hissed said Robinson as Joseph's crept away and having scraped off a grain of whitewash with his nail he made a little white mark on his trouser just above his calf for Joseph's to know him by should they meet next time with visors both down Joseph's gave a slight and rapid signal of intelligence as he disappeared two days after this they met on the staircase the boy who now looked at and at some distance and began to speak before they met I can't go on much longer like this no more can I I shall go to father why where is he he is dead I don't care how soon I go there either but not till I have sent haws on before not for all the world pass me and then come back they met again keep up your heart boy till his reverence gets well if he lives he will save us somehow if he dies I'll tell you a secret I know where there is a brick I think I can loosen I mean to smash that beast's skull with it and then you will be alright and my heart will feel like a prince oh don't do that said Joseph's piteously better for us he should murder us than we him murder cried Robinson contemptuously and there was no time to say anymore after this many days passed before these two could get a piece together but one day after chapel as the men were being told off to their several tasks Robinson recognized the boy by his figure and jogging his elbow withdrew a little apart Joseph's followed him and this time Robinson was the first speaker we shall never see Mr. Eden alive again boy said he in a faltering voice then in a low glooming tone he muttered I have loosened the brick the day I lose all hope the day you have no more hope Robinson that day has come to me this fortnight and more he tells me every day he will make my life hell to me and I'm sure it has been nothing else ever since I came here keep up your heart boy he hasn't long to live he will live too long for me I can't stay here any longer you and I shant off and chat together again perhaps never keep up your heart for my sake one bitter tearing sob was all the reply and so these two parted this was just after breakfast at dinner time Joseph's not having performed an impossible task was robbed of his dinner a little bread and water was served out to him in the yard and he was set on the crank again with fearful menaces in particular Mr. Hawes repeated his favorite threat he was alone but what could a boy of 15 do overtasked and famished for a month passed and fitter now for a hospital than for hard labor of any sort at 3 o'clock his progress on the crank was so slow that Mr. Hawes ordered him to be crucified on the spot his obedient murmidins for the 15th time seized the lad and crushed him in the jacket throttled him in the collar and pinned him to the wall and this time the prisoner remonstrated loudly why not kill me at once and put me out of my misery hold your tongue you know I can't do the task you set me you know it as well as I do hold your tongue you insolent young villain strap him tighter fry oh no no no don't go to strap me tighter or you will cut me in half don't Mr. Fry I will hold my tongue sir then he turned his hollow and asked till I break you you obstinate whining dog you are hardly used are you wait till tomorrow I'll show you that I have only been playing with you as yet but I've got a punishment in store for you that will make you wish you were in hell Hawes stood over the martyr fiercely threatening him the martyr shut his eyes it seemed as though the enraged Hawes would end by striking him he winced with his eyes he could not wince and jammed against the wall Hawes however did but repeat his threat of some new torture on the morrow that should far eclipsed all he had yet endured and shaking his fist at his helpless body left him with his torture one hour of bitter racking unremitting anguish had hardly rolled over this young head ere his frame weakened by famine and perpetual violence began to give the usual signs that he would soon sham swoon we call it when it occurs to any but a prisoner as my readers have never been in Mr. Hawes' manpress and as attempts have been made to impose on the inexperience of the public and represent the manpress as restriction not torture I will shortly explain why sooner or later all men that were crucified in it ended by shamming were you ever seized at night with a violent cramp an alarmed rapidity changed the posture which had cramped you I though the night was ever so cold you have sprung out of bed sooner than I cramped if the cramp would not go in less than half a minute that half minute was long and bitter as for existing cramped half an hour that you never thought possible imagine now the severest cramp you ever felt artificially prolonged for hours and hours imagine yourself cramped in a vice no part of you movable a hair's breath accept your hair and your eyelids imagine the fierce cramp growing and growing and rising like a tide of agony higher and higher above nature's endurance and you will cease to wonder that a man always sunk under Hawes' manpress now then add to the cramp a high circular saw raking the throat jacket straps cutting and burning the flesh of the back add to this the freezing of the blood in the body deprived so long of all motion whatever for motion of some sort or degree is a condition of vitality and a new and far more rational wonder arises that any man could be half an hour cut, sawed, crushed, cramped my zepid thus without shamming still less be four, six, eight hours in it and come out a living man the young martyr's lips were turning blue his face was twitching convulsively when a word was unexpectedly put in for him by a bystander the turnkey ebbons had been half sullenly half sorrowfully watching him for some minutes past a month or two ago the lips of a prisoner turning blue and his skin twitching told ebbons nothing he saw these things without seeing them he was cruel from stupidity from block head to butcher there is but a step like the English public the martyr's were concerned but Mr. Eden had awakened his intelligence and his heart waked with it naturally now when he saw lips turning blue and eyes rolling in sad despair and skin twitching convulsively it occurred to him this creature must be suffering very badly and the next step was let me see what is hurting him so ebbons now stood over Joseph's and examined him Mr. Frye said he doggedly is not this overdoing it what do you mean we are to obey orders I suppose of course but there was no need to draw the jacket straps so tight as all this boys bellows can't hardly work for him he now passed his hand round the hollow of the lads back I thought so cried he I can't get my finger between the straps and the poor fellow's flesh and good heavens I can feel the skin rising like a ridge on either side of the straps it is a black burning shame to use any Christian like this these words were hardly out of the turnkey's mouth when a startling cry came suddenly from poor Joseph's a sudden wild piercing scream of misery in that bitter despairing cry burst out the pent-up anguish of weeks and the sense of injustice and cruelty more than human the poor thing gave this one terrible cry heaven forbid that you should hear such a one in life as I hear his in my heart and then he fell to sobbing as his whole frame would burst they were not much these rough words of sympathy but they were the first the first words too of humanity and reason the turnkey had spoken in his favor since he came into this hell above all the first in which it had ever been hinted or implied that his flesh was human flesh the next moment he began to cry but that was not so easy he soon lost his breath and couldn't cry though and he started to get on it tears gave relief Dame Nature said cry my suffering son cry now and relieve that heart swelling with cruelty and wrong but Haas's infernal machine said no you shall not cry I give you no room to cry in the cruel straps jammed him so close his swelling heart could but half heave the jagged collar bit his throat so hard he could but give three or four sobs and then the next choked him Dame Nature panting and writhing for relief and the infernal man-press was so bitter strong that the boy choked and blackened and gasped as one in the last agony undo him cried Evans hastily or we shall kill him among us Bucket said the experienced fry quite coolly the bucket was at hand its contents were instantly discharged over Joseph's head a cry like a dying hair two or three violent gasps and he was quiet all but a strong shiver that passed from head to foot only with the water that now trickled from his hair down his face scalding tears from his young eyes fell to the ground undistinguished from the water by any but gods at six o'clock Haas came into the yard and ordered fry to take him down fry took this opportunity of informing against Evans for his mild interference he will pay for that along with an oath then he turned on Joseph's who halted stiffly by him on his way to the cell I'll make your life hell to you you young vagabond you are hardly used are you all you have ever known isn't a stroke with a feather to what I'll make you know by and by wait till tomorrow comes you shall see what I can do when I am put to it Joseph sobbed but answered to be a piece he found the gas lighted he was glad for he was drenched through and bitterly cold he crept up to the little gas light and put his dead white hands over it and got a little warmth into them he blessed this spark of light and warmth he looked lovingly down on it it was his only friend in the jail his companion in the desolate cell he wished he could gather it into his bosom while he hung shivering over his spark of light and warmth and comfort a key was put into his door ah here's supper thought he and I am so hungry it was not supper it was Fry who came in empty handed leaving the door open Fry went to his gas light and put his finger and thumb on the screw oh it burns all right Mr Fry said Joseph's it won't go any higher thank you for taking it out leaving the cell in under darkness there I told you so said Joseph pettishly now you have been and turned it out yes I have been and turned it out replied Fry with a brutal laugh and it won't be turned on again for 14 days so the governor says however and I suppose he knows and Fry went out chuckling Joseph's burst out sobbing and almost screaming at this last stroke it seemed to hurt him more he sobbed so wildly and so loud that Mr Jones passing on the opposite corridor hurt him and beckoned to Evans to open the cell they found the boy standing in the middle of his dungeon shaking with cold in his trench clothes and sobbing with his whole body it was frightful to see and hear the agony and despair of one so young in years so old and misery Mr Jones gave him words of commonplace consolation Mr Jones was the best cure be patient and do not irritate the governor anymore the storm will pass he seemed to Joseph's as one that mocketh Jones were such little words to fling in the face of a great despair to chatter unreasonable consolation was to mock his unutterable misery of soul and body Mr Jones was one of those who sprinkled a burning mountain with a teaspoon full of milk and water and then go away along with this impression Evans took down the boy's bed and said don't she cry now like that it makes me ill to hear any Christian cry like that oh Mr Evans oh what have I done oh my mother my mother Evans winced what had he a mother too if she could see him now and perhaps he was her darling though he was a prisoner the force made him lie down then he twisted the clothes tight round him you will get warm if you will lie quiet and not think about it Joseph's did what he was bid he could not still his sobs but he turned his mournful eyes on Evans with a look of wonder at meeting with kindness from a human being and half doubtingly put out his hand so then Evans took to comfort him took his hand and shook it several times you will soon get warm and don't think of it this is the best way and Evans ran away in the middle of a sentence with a look of astonishment the boy warred his humanity went through the man's penitent heart like an arrow Joseph's lay quiet and his sobs began gradually to go down and as Evans had predicted some little warmth began to steal over his frame but he could not comply with all Evans instructions so he took a warm nature who knew how much her tortured son needed repose began to weigh down his eyelids and he dozed he often started he often murmured a prayer for pity as his mind acted over again the scenes of his miserable existence but still he dozed and sleep was stealing over him sleep life's nurse sent from heaven to create us a new day by day sleep and sorrows for one that has yielded to any moral remedy sleep that has blunted and so cured by degrees a million fleshly ills for one that drugs or droughts have ever reached sleep had her arm around this poor child and was drawing him gently gently slowly slowly to her bosom when suddenly his cell seemed to be all in a blaze and a rough hand shook him and a harsh voice sounded in his ears come get up out of that youngster it said and the hand almost jerked him off the floor what is the matter inquired Joseph's yawning matter is I want your bed Joseph's rose half stupid and Hodges rolled up his bed in blanket are you really going to rob me of my bed inquired Joseph slowly and firmly rob you you young dog here is the governor's order no bed and gas for 14 days no bed and gas for 14 days ha ha ha ha ha ha oh you laugh at that do you I laugh at Mr. Paws thinking to keep me out of bed for 14 days a poor worn out boy like me you tell Hez I'll find a bed in spite of him long before 14 days Hodges looked about the cell for this other bed come said he you must not shaft the officers the governor will serve you out enough without you giving us any of your sauce Hodges was going with the bed and stopped him the boy took his last blow quite differently from the gas no impatience or burst of sorrow now won't you bid me goodbye Mr. Hodges asked he why not good night that isn't what I mean Mr. Evans gave me his hand did he what for and so must you oh you may as well Mr. Hodges so you can take my hand if I give it you you will be sorry afterwards if you say no there it is what the better are you for that you young fool I'll tell you what it is you are turning soft I don't know what to make of you I shall come to your cell first thing in the morning I do Mr. Hodges said and then you won't be sorry you shook my hand at night at this moment the boy's supper was thrust through the trap door it was not the supper by law it was in a can of water Hodges now that he had touched the prisoner's hand felt his first spark of something bordering on sympathy he looked at the grub half ashamed and made a rye face Joseph's caught his look and answered it it is as much as I shall want said he very calmly and he smiled at Hodges as he spoke a sweet and tender but dogged smile a smile to live in a man's memory for years the door was closed with a loud snap and Joseph was left to face the long night it was now seven o'clock in his wet clothes which smoked with the warmth his late bed had begun to cherish but they soon ceased to smoke as the boy froze night advanced Joseph's walk about his little cell his teeth chattering then flung himself like a dead log on the floor and finding Hodges spirit in the cold hard stone rose and crawled shivering to and fro again meantime we were all in our nice soft beds such as found three blankets too little added a dressing gown flannel or print lined with wadding or fleecy hosiery and so made shift in particular all those who had the care of Joseph's took care to lie warm and soft Hawes, Jones, Hodges, Fry Justices, Shallow and Woodcock all took the care of their own carcasses they did not take of Joseph's youthful frame be cold at night not if we know it why you can't sleep if you are not thoroughly warm end of chapter 18 part 2 chapters 19 and 20 of it is never too late to mend this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org it is never too late to mend by Charles Reid chapter 19 Midnight Joseph's was crouched shivering under the door of his cell listening all right now I think they are all asleep now is the time Hawes, Hodges, Jones, Fry were snoring without a thought of him they had left to pass the live long night clothed in a sponge cradled on a stone Dormais, messieurs Tudes, tranquille Dormais chapter 20 past one o'clock the moon was up but often obscured clouds drifted swiftly across her face it was a cold morning past one o'clock Joseph's was at his window standing tiptoe on his stool thoughts coursed one another across his broken heart as fast as the clouds flew past the moon's face but whatever their nature the sting was now out of them the bitter sense of wrong and cruelty was there but blunted fear was nearly extinct for hope was dead there was no tumult in his mind now he had gone through all that and had got a step beyond grief or pain thus ran his thoughts I wonder what Hawes was going to do with me tomorrow something worse than all I have gone through he said that seems hard to believe but I don't know best not give him the chance he does know how to torture one well he must keep it for some other poor fellow I hope it won't be Robinson I'll have a look at out of doors first ah there is the moon I wonder does she see what is done here and there is the sky it is a beautiful place who would stay here under Hawes if they could get up there God lives up there I'm almost afraid he won't let a poor wicked boy like me come where he is and they say this is a sin too he will be angry with me but I couldn't help it I shall tell him what I went through first and perhaps he will forgive me his reverence told me he takes the part of those that are ill-used it will be a good job for me if to so perhaps he will serve Hawes out for this instead of me I think I should if I was him I know he can't be so cruel as Hawes that is my only chance and I'm going to take it some folks live to 80 I am only 15 that is a long odds I dare say it is five times as long as 15 it is hard but I can't help it Hawes wouldn't let me live to be a man he is stronger than I am will it be a long job I wonder some say it hurts a good deal some think not I shall soon know but I shall never tell that doesn't trouble me it is only throttling when all is done and ain't I throttled every day of my life shouldn't I be throttled tomorrow if such a spoon is to see tomorrow I mustn't waste much more time where my hands will be crippled with cold and then I shan't be able to Mr. Evans will be sorry I can't help it bless him for being so good to me and bless Mr. Eden I hope he will get better I do my handkerchief is old I hope it won't break oh no there is no fear of that I don't weigh half what I did when I came here my mother will fret but I can't help it oh dear oh dear oh dear I hope someone will tell her what I went through first and then she will say better so than for my body to be abused worse than a dog every day of my life I can't help it and I should be dead anyway before the 14 days were out now is as good a time as any other no one is stirring no please forgive me mother I couldn't help it please forgive me God Almighty if you care what a poor boy like me does or is done to I couldn't help it il est d'userre tout est tranquille dormez maitres dormez end of chapters 19 and 20 recording by Phillip Gould chapter 21 of it is never too late to mend this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org it is never too late to mend by Charles Reed chapter 21 it was a bright morning the world awoke the working Englishman dead drunk at the public house overnight had got rid of two-thirds of his burning poison by the help of man's chief nurse and now he must work off the rest grumbling at this the kind severity of his lot warm men respectable men among whom justices of the peace and other voluptuous disciplinarians were tempted out of delicious beds by the fragrant berry the balmy leaf snowy damask fire glowing behind polished bars in short by multiferous comfort set in a frame of gold they came down to sleep dear sir pretty well said one with a doubtful ear scarce closed my eyes all night snarled another another had been awakened by the barking of a dog and it was full half an hour before he could lose the sense of luxurious ease and unconsciousness again he made an incident of this and looked round the table for sympathy and obtained it especially from such as rotodies now all these had slept as much as he had admired number one our hidey nose like a top number two eight hours out of the nine the ninth his sufferings had been moderate they had been confined to this a bitter sense of two things first that he was lying floating in a sea of comforts secondly that the moment he should really need sleep sleep was at his service in blank jail and he had to do the day before slept among class one and now turned out of their warm beds as they had turned into them without a shade of anxiety or even recollection of him whom they had left last evening at eight to pass the live long night in a sponge upon the stone uproars refreshed with sleep that zealous officer haws he was in the prison at daybreak and circulated with inspecting eye all through it went into the kitchen three more of half their allowance then into the corridors where on one of the snowy walls he found a speck swore had it instantly removed then sent to the labor yard and prepared a crank for an athletic prisoner by secretly introducing a weight and so making the poor crank a storyteller in the prologue to punishment returning to the body of the prison he called out he was not answered with the usual alacrity and looked up to repeat his summons when he observed a cell open and two turn keys standing in earnest conversation at the door he mounted the stairs in great heat what are you all humbugging there for and why does not that young rascal turn out to work I'll fizzic him blank him the turn keys looked in their chief's face with a strange expression of stupid wonder haws caught this his wrath rose higher what do you stand staring at me like stuck pigs for come out number fifteen blank you all why don't you bring him out to the crank hodges answered gloomily from the cell come and bring him yourself if you can at such an address from a turn key haws who had now mounted the last stair gave a snort of surprise and wrath then darted into the cell threatening the most horrible vengeance on the bones and body of poor Joseph's threats which he confirmed with a tremendous oath but to that oath succeeded a sudden dead stupid staring silence for running fiercely into the cell with rage in his face threats and curses on his tongue he had almost stumbled over a corpse it lay in the middle of the cell stark and cold but peaceful haws stood over it he stopped short his foot would have been upon it his mouth open but no sound came he stood paralyzed a greater than he was in that cell and he was dumb he looked up Hodges and Fry were standing silent looking down on the body Fry was grave Hodges trembled part of a handkerchief fluttered from the bar of the window a knife had severed it the other fragment lay on the floor the body where Hodges had dropped it haws took this in at a glance and comprehended it all this was not the first or second prisoner that had escaped him by a similar road for a moment his blood frozen him he wished to heaven he had not been so severe upon the poor boy it was but for a moment the next he steeled himself in the tremendous egotism that belongs to and makes the deliberate manslayer young viper has done this to spite me said he and he actually cast a look of petulant anger down at this precise point the minds that had borne his company so long began to part from it Fry looked in his face with an expression bordering on open contempt and Hodges shoved rudely by him and left the cell Hodges leaned over the corridor in silence one of the interior turn keys was the situation in which he had found the body don't speak to me was the fierce wild answer and he looked with a stupid wild stare over the railings so wild and white and stricken was this man's face that Evans who was exchanging some words with a gentleman on the basement floor happening to catch sight of it interrupted himself and hallowed from below Hodges made no reply the man seemed to have lost his speech for some time past let us go and see said the gentleman and he ascended the steps somewhat feebly accompanied by Evans what is it Hodges what is it answered the man impatiently go in there and you'll see what it is I don't like this, sir said Evans oh I am fearful there is something that has happened you mustn't come in sir you stay here and I'll go in and see he entered the cell meantime a short conference had passed between haws and fry this is a bad business fry and no mistake had you any idea of this no can't say I had if the person ever gets well he will make this a handle to ruin you and me me sir I only obey orders that won't save you if they get the better of me you will suffer along with me I shouldn't wonder I told you you were carrying it too far but you wouldn't listen to me I was wrong fry I ought to have listened to you for you are the only one that is faithful to me in the jail I know my duty sir and I try to do it what are we to do with him fry well I don't think he ought to lie on the floor let him have his bed now I think you are right I'll send for it ah here is Evans go for number 15's bed Evans standing at the door had caught but a glimpse of the object that lay on the floor but that glimpse was enough he went out and said to Hodges wasn't it you that took Joseph's bed away last night the man cowered under the question well you are to go and fetch it back the governor says without a word Evans returned to the cell he came and kneeled down by Joseph's and laid his hand upon him I feared it I feared it said he why he has been dead a long time all your reverence why did you come in when I told you not poor Joseph's is no more sir Mr. Eden who had already saluted Mr. Hawes with grave politeness though without any affectation of good will came slowly up and sinking his voice to a whisper in the presence of death said in pitiful accents poor child he was always sickly six weeks ago I feared we should lose him but he seemed to get better he was now kneeling beside him was he ill long sir he asked of Hawes probably he was for he is much wasted I can feel all his bones rather in some confusion presently Mr. Eden started back why what is this he is wet he is wet from head to foot what is the cause of this can you tell me Mr. Hawes Mr. Hawes did not answer but Evans did I'm afraid it is the bucket your reverence they sourced him in the yard late last night did they do this morning but stay why then he was not under the doctor's hands Evans bless you know he was harder worked and worse fed than any man in the jail at work last night then at what hour did he die he is stiff and cold this is a very sudden death did anyone see this boy die the men gave no answer but the last words did anyone see this boy die seemed to give Evans a new light no he cried no one saw him die look here sir see what is dangling from the window his handkerchief and this mark round his throat Evans he has destroyed himself and Mr. Eden recoiled from the corpse oh you may forgive him sir said Evans we should all have done the same creature could live the life they led him who could live upon bread and water and punishment it is a sorrowful sight but it is a happy release for him a poor lad said Evans laying his hand upon the body I like thee well but I am glad thou art gone thou hast escaped away from worse trouble come it is no use sniveling Evans put in haws I am as sorry for this job as you are but who would have thought he was so determined he gave us no warning don't you believe that sir cried Evans to Mr. Eden he gave them plenty of warning I heard him with my own ears tell you you were killing him not a day for the last fortnight he did not tell you Mr. Hawes well I didn't believe him you see you mean you didn't care hold your tongue Evans you are disrespectful dare you speak to me you insolent dog hold your tongue no sir I won't hold my tongue over this dead body be silent Evans said Mr. Eden this is no place for disputes Evans my heart is broken while there is life there is hope but here what hope is there many in this place live in crime but this one has died in crime he of whom I had such good hopes has died in crime died by his own hand he has murdered his own soul my heart is broken my heart is broken the good man's anguish was terrible Evans consoled him don't go on so sir pray don't Joseph's is where none of us but you shall ever get to he is in heaven as sure as we are upon earth he was the best lad in the place there wasn't a drop of gall in him whoever heard a bad word from him and he did not kill himself till he found he was to die whether or no so then he shortened his own death struggle and he was right I don't understand you I dare say not sir but these two understand me oh it is no use to look black at me now Mr. Hawes I shall speak my mind though my head was to be cut off I am a coward I thought too much of my wife and children but I am a man now ay poor lad thou shan't be maligned now thou art dead as well as tormented alive sir he that lies here so pale and calm was not guilty of self destruction he was driven to death don't speak to me sir but look at me and hear the truth as it will come out the day all of us in this cell suddenly on his knees took the dead boy's hand in his left hand and held his right up and in this strange attitude which held all his hearers breathless he poured out a terrible tale his boiling heart and the touch of him whom now too late he defended like a man gave him simple but real eloquence and in few words that scalded as they fell he told as powerfully as I have feebly by what road Joseph's had been goaded to death he brought the dark tale down to where he left the sufferer rolled up in the one comfort left him on earth his bed and then turning suddenly and leaving Joseph's he said sternly and now sir ask the governor where is the bed I wrapped the wet boy up in for it isn't here you know as much as I do was haws sulky reply but at this moment Hodges came into the cell with his arms there is his bed cried he and what is the use of it now if you had left it him last night it would be better for him and for me too and he flung the bed on the floor oh it was you took it from him was it said Evans well I'm here to obey orders Jack Evans do you do nothing but what you like in this place let there be no disputing with no sir one thing only is worth knowing or thinking of now whether there is hope for this our brother in that world to which he has passed all unprepared Hodges you saw him last alive Hodges groaned I saw him last at night and first in the morning I entreat you to remember all that passed at night between you then cover up his face it draws my eyes to it Mr. Eden covered the dead face gently with his handkerchief Mr. Hawes met me in the corridor and sent me to take away his bed I found him dozing and I took I did what I was ordered Mr. Eden sighed tell me what he said and did well sir when I showed him the order 14 days without bed and gas he bursts out a laughing good heavens and says he I don't say for gas but you tell Mr. Hawes I shan't be without bed nothing nice so long as that Mr. Eden and Evans exchanged a meaning glance so did Fry and Hawes then I said no I shan't tell Mr. Hawes anything to make him punish you anymore because you were punished too much as it is says I I'm glad you said that but tell me what he said he said did he complain did he use angry or bitter words you make me drag it out of you no he didn't he wasn't one of that sort the next thing was he asked me to give him my hand well I was surprised like at his asking for my hand and I doing him such an ill turn so then he said Mr. Hodges says he why not I never took away your bed from under you so you can give me your hand if I can give you mine oh what a beautiful nature ah these are golden words I hope for the credit of human nature you gave him your hand well of course I did sir I had no malice it was ignorance and owing to being so used to obey the governor here Mr. Hawes who had remained quiet all this time now absorbed in his own reflections sullenly to those strange scenes in which the dead boy seemed for a time to have eclipsed his importance burst angrily in I have listened patiently to you Mr. Eden to see how far you would go but I see if I wait till you leave off undermining me with my servants I may wait a long while Mr. Eden turned round impatiently you who thinks of you or such as you in the presence of such a question as lies here and I did not see you or think of you or notice you were here that is polite well sir the governor is somebody in most jails but it seems he is to be nobody here so long as you were in it and that won't be long come fry we have other duties to attend to so saying he and his lieutenant went out of the cell Hodges went too but not with them well sir burst out Evans don't you see that the real murderer is not that stupid ignorant Al Hodges hush Evans this is no time or place for unkindly thoughts thank heaven that you were free from their guilt and leave me alone with him he was left alone with the dead Evans looked through the people of the cell an hour later he was still on his knees fearing hoping vowing end of chapter 21 recording by Philip Gould